MARYSVILLE
Women imprisoned for murder helped the
homeless people in Columbus survive last winter
with quilts stitched at the Ohio Reformatory for
Women.
Most of the Women huddled under the quilts last
winter did not know that first lady Hope Taft helped
start the prisoners' quilting project when she visited
the 2003 Ohio State Fair.
Taft asked members of the Goodtime Quilters of
Circleville if they could provide materials and
instructions to Marysville inmates.
Then she contacted the Wings of Hope, who
helped feed and clothe the homeless. The
Robinsons delivered the quilts along with food and
bottled water to people living under bridges and in
makeshift shacks on the west side of Columbus.
The 71 inmates serving life sentences for murder
or complicity to murder who helped make the quilts
also tapped into their meager inmate accounts
from prison jobs to contribute $1000 to the Wings
of Hope. The prison staff chipped in an additional
$280
Emotions ran high on Nov. 8th when Taft visited
the prison to thank the inmates. "It was
overwhelming to think that these women had such
compassion and worked so hard and did so much
with so little" Taft said. "Sometimes you just plant a
seed." she said.
Stephanie O'Bell, 49 of Euclid, a Marysville inmate
serving a life sentence, tearfully recalled the visit.
"That was an awesome day," she said "When she
got up there and said, 'You are all angels' never
could anyone imagine, after all the things we've
taken from society, that anyone would call us
angels. I looked back the women's faces were all
lit up"
As recounted from the Cincinnati Enquirer
Tuesday 30 November 2004
